Ways to Fernie

Believe me, 36 degrees is a heat wave around here.

The cousins and my brother and I all were planning on going to Great Bear on Friday but it turns out that it was a slush-fest there. Kind of surprising for it being only 36, but that was the deal. We decided to wait until after dark for it to freeze a bit and go ice skating instead. That also didn’t work out since the warming house closed at 9. With it being a public and outdoor rink, we decided that since we had a sticks and a puck, that we’d play some incredibly sketchy no-skates hockey on ice. It was an absolute blast! A couple of bruised feet and a few dozen falls later, we decided to call it quits. Lizzy got some pictures snapped, so I’ll have to see if I can’t get a couple from her.

Today is my last working day until next Friday which should make for a pretty exciting new years celebration. In typical “Our Group” tradition, there is nothing planned and probably wont be until 8pm or so on new years eve. Go figure.

With Fernie coming up so fast, it’s actually gotten to the point that I only have 4 work-free days left until I leave. If that’s not incentive to get packing, then I don’t know what is. I work basically non-stop from next Friday until the Thursday before I leave, giving me just until Friday to get things washed, waxed, packed and take off. I’d really like to ski another day before I head out, and I should be able to squeeze one in the next few days.

My route (so far) is…

Sioux Falls to Rapid City (or something further) on Friday, then Rapid City to Bozeman on Saturday.

or

Sioux Falls to Bozeman on Saturday. I think I’d like to hang out with my friends and family for one more day before heading out anyways. Who knows, I’m not sure yet. I’ll probably figure it out on Thursday.

Ski Big Sky on Sunday.

Bozeman to Calgary on Monday to pick up the Non-stoppers, then off to Fernie that same night. I plan on us getting in about 9 or 10 at night. After that long day I’m not sure I’ll even be up for a beer at that point…

Ahhh, who am I kidding, of course I’ll be up for a beer! Either way I’m going to need to stock up on Red Bull and that 5 hour energy stuff because Tuesday we’re hitting the slopes in Fernie.

Belated Christmas

My apologies for the lack of updates as of late. It’s been an interesting and very enjoyable couple of days with people coming back, Christmas with the family and computers failing miserably. My computer at home seems to have gone off the deep end and now I’m working on reformatting the hard drive. This will be the first time I’ve ever done this, so it might take a little longer than it should, but bear with me. I’ll be back to having regular updates soon enough.

Christmas yesterday was with my mom’s side of the family at the Carlson building in Sibley, Iowa. I was skeptical to say the least at the thought of having Christmas in a “warehouse” (as it was described to me), but I was more than happy with how everything turned out. When I think warehouse, I think iron, concrete, grey, drab. Boo. But this warehouse is in Sibley and was built a long time ago. Wood floors and ceiling and the walls were all made of brick. My cousins were hard at work clearing out space and putting up vintage decorations from my Grandmothers old house and from the warehouse itself for a day or two beforehand and it couldn’t have turned out better! There was a pseudo living room complete with a tree, train, and plenty of space for everyone to sit down. All of the walls were filled with toys and decorations on shelves taller than I am. The “dining room” was lined with washing machines, dryers and stoves that acted as counter tops to put all of the food on. Christmas lights were strung up everywhere and it gave a nice Christmas glow to everything. It’s very hard to describe just how cool this was, so hopefully I’ll get some pictures soon enough.

Christmas this year for me was everything that it should be. I think I can safely say that we’ve found a new home for the Kass family Christmas.

Later today my cousins are all coming to Sioux Falls and we’ll be skiing at Great Bear for the rest of the day. It’s supposed to be very nice out, if not a little warm, so I can only hope that the line to the lift isn’t going to be too long. That’s right, lift. Singular.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and got to spend it with everyone they wanted to. I know I did!

Hostage Crisis Situation

Alright, well not quite, but I’m suck at work.

Turns out they closed the center due to it being a blizzard all. Now they won’t let me leave. That’s right, I’m forcibly stuck here.

Great.

The only consolation is that Great Bear is closed because of the weather, so even if I wasn’t here I couldn’t ski.

Stay tuned to OneGoAround and we’ll keep you posted as the situation unfolds…

Where I’m Headed

Anyone care to join?

Ruh-Roh…

Continuing the nerd trend that I seem to have going on here…I like space.

By space, I don’t mean that I like to have 3 people-free feet all around me, I mean stars, moon, galaxy, comets, etc. I like to follow NASA and the happenings of what the crap is going on with the space programs around the world and such. I like to think that I have a fair understanding of the Earth, it’s place in the galaxy and how things work. The truth is that I really have no idea about the intricacies of certain things, but I get the big picture. So when I came across this article, I was a bit… scared.

You see, magnetism is something that I don’t really get. I mean, sure magnets stick to my refrigerator, north and south poles and all of that, but I really don’t understand it. I don’t understand why they are attracted to or oppose one another. And then you go and throw solar winds into it and I’m really confused. I suppose I need to wikipedia it and figure it out. The fact that the worlds top experts didn’t see this coming and can’t explain it kind of makes you think that lots of people really don’t understand it, which is fairly nerve-racking if you ask me.

It’s not nerve-racking that we just discovered it. Chances are that this has been happening for a long time and that we simply just figured out that it was happening. What is nerve racking is that this changes a fundamental belief in the scientific community. But you didn’t want all of the scientists in the world slacking off now did you? Time to try and crack this egg.

I suppose though that that is what it’s about. Trying to figure out why things are happening, what things happened, and what things might happen in the future.

There is an excellent book out by Neil deGrasse Tyson called Death by Black Hole if you’re interested in reading a little more on the subject of science and space. Death by Black Hole takes all of the NASA and science mumbo-jumbo and strips it down to layman’s terms. It explores everything from the origins of the universe to, like the title suggests, what it would actually be like to die via black hole. What I like most about the book is that it does what some of the books in its genre seem unable to do. It leaves religion out of it. Science and religion have a long standing feud, one that I just can’t understand. The reasons for this are for another blog, another time, but I really applaud Mr. Tyson for steering clear of religion in his book. The only mention he has of religion at all is in the last chapter he warns against teaching only intelligent design in schools, and it makes plenty of sense.

Pick up Death by Black Hole. Read, enjoy, and look at the stars with a whole new perspective.

My Car Broke

It’s not a big deal, really. The clutch cable just broke, which isn’t a difficult fix. Not one I can do myself, mind you, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

I had to get it towed, which again isn’t a big deal thanks to AAA. What was frustrating was the guy who came to pick up my car.

First off, it’s snowed here in Sioux Falls quite a bit. There are a lot of cars in the ditches and things due to people forgetting that, you know, ice and snow is slick. That all translates into towing companies being fairly busy this time of year.

We went out Tuesday night for Lauren’s last night in town before she goes back to Kansas for her Christmas break thinger. So on our way to the Piano Bar downtown my clutch cable broke. I thought it was the lever itself, however, which prompted me to exclaim “My clutch pedal broke!” just short of 20 times before Jenny B told me to shut up. A quick push to a parking lot and we hop in the other car to call AAA. I call AAA and they tell me that it’s going to be “several hours” before I can get a tow and that the towing company will give me a call before they get there so that I can meet the guy at the car. Alright, we’re going out anyway, so it’s not a big deal.

We meet Zach at the piano bar and 30 minutes (not several hours) later, I get the call from the tow truck guy telling me that he’s there.

“Alright, well I’ll be there as quick as I can”

He tells me that I have 10 minutes or he’s leaving.

Not.Gonna.Happen.

I try to get there as soon as I can, but the tow truck isn’t there when I get to the car, so I call the guy and ask him where he’s at. He informs me that I took too long, the call has been “Canceled”, and that I’ll have to call AAA again.

I hung up the phone before I could say anything. I was livid. I wasn’t upset that it was only a half hour instead of the several hours they told me, it’s not what I was planning on, but whatever. I was upset that the guy flat out left. No call, no hey man, are you close? Nothing.

Thankfully in the middle of calling AAA back, the tow truck guy called me and told me he was on the way back.

Thank you sir, you have un-pissed me off.

Long story short, the car is in the shop and going to be completely looked over before I head to Fernie, clutch cable and all.

I also just bought a Thule roof top carrier, so that’s moderately exciting. Things are getting close now for Fernie, and I really can’t wait. I know I say that a lot, but it’s simply because it’s true.

Next Monday one of my very good friends will be coming back to Sioux Falls. It’s been far too long since I’ve seen her and it will be good to hang out again. You can check out her blog Here.

The Two Towers is coming along pretty well. I’m quite a way into it, but it’s tough to find a quiet hour or so in the day to really get a good chunk read.

Come to think of it, it’s fairly quiet right now. I think I know what I’ll do…

Sent 5 Minutes Ago

_____,

This letter is to advise you that I have decided to take another direction in my life separate from _______ and ____. Please regard this as my official letter of resignation.

My last day of work will be the 8th of January, 2009. This should give me enough time to finish up any work I have left to do as well as do the necessary out-processing paperwork.

I am very much looking forward to this new chapter in my life and am ready for the new challenges that await me. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to you, ____, ______, and the entire _______ team as I have truly enjoyed my time working here. I will no doubt be putting the lessons learned and skills acquired here at _____ to good use in the future.

I wish everyone at ___ and ____ continued success and look forward to hearing of your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

 

-34

…degrees outside.

NOT JOKING.

Granted that’s windchill, but c’mon now. It’s still -10 if the wind was dead!
I’m for a little cold now and then, and even enjoy a good blizzard, (I am headed to the Canadian rockies) but that’s just getting ridiculous.

My car was just getting warm when I pulled into work. It’s a half hour drive from my house.

Good news is that I have tonight off. I’ve been working my other job every night since Friday, and I’m looking forward to taking a nap when I get home.

It’s days like today that I wish we had a fireplace.